A BARRED OWL

Untitled Slide

VOCABULARY

• Domesticate - to control, tame; to make more acceptable
• Stealthy - secret, a furtive departure or entrance
• Warping - twisting, turning or distorting
• "Who cooks for you?" - a common allusion to the sound of a Barred Owl's call
• Borne - past participle of "bear"; to thrust, put somewhere forcibly

BOX STRUCTURE

We separated this poem into two 'boxes'. The first box, lines 1-6, has an obvious tone of peace and comfort. In the second box, lines 6-12, the author utilizes diction to reflect a dark, mysterious tone.

MESSAGE AND MEANING

"A Barred Owl" clearly illustrates how we, as humans, deal with our fears. The message from Wilbur may be that we should not allow fear to hold us back and blind us from truth and also, ironically, that humans are melodramatic when it comes to fear.

RHETORICAL DEVICES

Richard Wilbur utilized many rhetorical devices within the poem such as onomatopoeias, personification, and diction in order to reveal the somber tone within his work.